Finally, Own-to-Rent…and a Count of Green Jobs
First, years after I first heard Dean Baker raise the idea, a major bank has introduced an “own-to-rent” program that would enable homeowners at risk of default on their mortgages to keep living in their homes. From the WSJ: Bank of America Corp. is launching a pilot program that will allow homeowners at risk of foreclosure [...]
It’s All There in the International Price Movements
If you were wondering why the President can’t do anything much to affect short-term gas prices, look at this figure, from an excellent piece on the subject in the NYT. When wonks like me pushback against the political panderers who claim they can magically lower gas prices, we point out that oil is priced on [...]
Monday’s Papers
A few things caught my eyes this AM: Keep The Feds Out of Our Economy (um…Never Mind): This one reminded me of a point I often make in talks these days. It’s a good e.g. of how a global trend—climate change—is leading to a situation—rising sea levels—that YOYO economics can’t solve. The problem here is [...]
Gas Prices: The Politicians Are Already Doing The Only Thing They Can Do
I’m not trying to be partisan here, but there really is nothing the President can do about gas prices in the near term. There’s actually not all that much he or she could do in the long term. If he or she was the president of Saudi Arabia, then yes, there might be more levers [...]
Talking Newt G & Gas Prices at the Rolling Stone
Not quite on the cover, but check it out.
Who’s Responsible?
For substantive, non-partisan reasons—really!—I like this poll result. It’s just a snapshot and I’m sure these sentiments are volatile, but it shows that fewer people blame the president for the current spike in gas prices, and more people just don’t know why prices spike like this (or refused to answer; back in Sept 2005, [...]
Energy, Price Signals, and Conservation
Gas prices remain up there—latest national average is 3.72/gal, up $0.33 from a year ago. Though oil fell back a bit today the pressures on energy supply behind this recent spike remain in place, including geopolitics in Iran, some offline refineries, a bit of market speculation (nothing untoward, but it matters), and just general tightness [...]
Roadwork!
Flitting about the land again, sprinkling progressive economic vibes in my wake…at least that’s the goal. Started out a few days ago talking immigration policy in NYC and then off to Portland. First, let me say that I like Portland. I’m not an expert, and every city’s got its challenges, but: –It’s easy to get [...]
Build on the Momentum We’ve Got
The President gave a strong speech tonight, laying out what he called “a blueprint for an economy that’s built to last.” The overall message of the economics in the speech—and it was largely an economics speech—was that there’s a lot we need to get done if we’re going to get this economy working for working [...]
On Net…
The NYT has an interesting piece this AM on the recent increase in US exports, their contribution to growth, and the progress made on the Obama administration’s goal, announced in Jan of 2010, of doubling exports in five years. I’ve got a beef, however. The piece doesn’t mention imports. What matters for growth is NET [...]
Don’t Stop Worrying About Tomorrow
Just in case you’re being lulled into good feelings about the current economy, I wanted to share some poking around I’ve been doing re the impact of oil price spikes. This goes back the second figure in this post, showing strains potentially building in global oil capacity. (Read James Hamilton for authoritative analysis of the [...]
Happy New Year! Now, Here Are a Few Things to Worry About
Look, I don’t want to raise your anxiety level, especially as you’re nursing that headache from last night’s revelry. But I figure you’d want me to give it to you straight, starting out the new year by cataloging a few of the risk factors in play, economically speaking. Europe: As the countries of the Eurozone [...]
The Key to Keystone
I’ve found much of the Keystone Pipeline analysis to be lacking. One of the main arguments against it—the potential damage caused by leaks of the particularly dense goop extracted from the Canadian tar sands—is of course perfectly sound, especially given the environmental sensitivity of the planned route. But a) they’ll just change the route (as [...]
Perry’s Gaffe and the R’s Agenda
Ok, so Gov Perry had a senior moment in last night’s debate. It happens. Frankly, as someone who actually thinks these agencies do useful stuff, I’m glad when they can’t remember which ones they want to close. And I can think of much better reasons than a memory lapse as to why the Texas gov’s [...]
YAIA
That’s “You Ask, I Answer”…a regular feature here. BTW, we recently made a video version of this feature that I’ll try to post next week. Here are a few Q&As and I may add more later, time permitting. Q: GDP is back to the pre-recession level but its composition surely has changed. Are we still [...]
Cool Project, Cool Graphic
Gave a talk this AM at the New American Foundation, commenting on their Energy Trap project. It’s a fascinating research effort to gain a more granular understanding of how folks deal with the costs of getting from here to there, including gas, cars, insurance, and transportation in general. Check out this remarkable graphic. Each circle represents [...]
This Should Help a Bit
Never one to daydream when I could be collecting data, I always observe the prices at the Sunoco Station I pass on my running route. I thought I noticed significant declines of late, and that is what the national data show. Regular unleaded peaked at about $4/gallon last spring, and is down about $0.50 since [...]
Solyndra, Risk, and Risk Aversion
The bankruptcy of Solyndra, a solar panel manufacturer that got a government loan of over $500 million from a (GW Bush era) loan-guarantee program, is garnering a lot of headlines. Opponents of the administration are salivating at the opportunity to use this as an example of all things bad about activist economic policy, “picking winners,” [...]
Industrial Policy as the Removal of Self-Imposed Handcuffs
Best read of the day so far is this article on US industrial policy by Jon Gertner in the NYT magazine. Since I began this blog, I’ve worried about job creation, both cyclical and structural. Re the latter, one of the many pairs of ideological handcuffs we put on ourselves in this country is the [...]
Miles to Go Before We Sleep
Every few months I check in on this graph by the Federal Highway Administration of vehicle miles driven since the mid-1980s (it’s a 12 month moving average). And every time I remember to click over there, I’m struck by the how unique the recent trend is in historical context. Yes, this was a worse recession [...]
Enough with the Present—I’m Looking Ahead
Hey…did you hear that?? It sounded like something just snapped. It’s the sound of America finally getting fed up with the high-stakes craziness going on here in the nation’s capital. I could be wrong, but my read of the national mood is changing and that enough people are both paying attention to the debt ceiling [...]
The Green, Clean Economy
What do you think of when you hear the words “green economy?” Ask that question to 10 different people and you’ll get 12 different answers. Which is why I was very happy to see this insightful, new analysis from the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. I’ve always been supportive of this stuff, but have fretted [...]
Filling Up In Nebraska: A Conspiracy Theory
I took the picture below when I was filling up the tank earlier today in Nebraska. Weird, right? The higher octane gas (“Plus”) costs $0.15 less per gallon than the regular. I thought it was a mistake in the signage, but no. Along with higher octane, the “plus” contained 10% ethanol—the regular was corn-free. Still, [...]
Ideas From Aspen, Part 2
Just back from an interesting panel on manufacturing where we had a good talk about the role of government in the sector. I again stressed the economic rationale for government’s role in overcoming barriers that no single firm could overcome, like R&D, coordination across place and sectors, access to credit for unproven innovative initiatives, and [...]
Jared Bernstein’s areas of expertise include federal and state economic and fiscal policies, income inequality and mobility, trends in employment and earnings, international comparisons, and the analysis of financial and housing markets.
